How much faith do you have in a conviction/acquital?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Suppose that someone you know was charged with a crime, and sent to trial.

How much would the way you treated them afterwards depend on whether the jury found them innocent or guilty, and how much would depend on your own assessment of the evidence (assuming that you knew enough of the details)?

Would it make a difference what the crime they were accused of was? Would you mean more prone to treat someone who had been convicted but you thought was probably innocent as though they were innocent, or someone who had been acquitted but you thought was probably guilty as though they were guilty? Would you draw a distinction between personal life (will I remain friends with this person) and public life (will I employ this person)? Would it make a difference if you were certain of their guilt/innocence (you were a witness to the crime, or to an alibi, for example?)


Personally, I worry that this is a question to which there is no good answer. I don't want to live in a society where I can be forced to continue to employ someone I know or have good reason to believe committed a serious crime, I don't want to live in a society where my life can be ruined by someone making false accusations against me even if they can't prove them, and I don't see how it is possible to avoid at least one of those being true.